Your Right to Know

House Democrats called on Secretary of State Jon Husted yesterday to enforce a rule that sets
reporting requirements and limits on corporate and union political spending.

Republicans are moving to eliminate the rule as part of Gov. John Kasich’s off-year budget bill,
which passed the House last week. The rule includes a ban on companies giving political donations
for one year after receiving a state contract or other incentives, and bans donations by companies
that are more than 20 percent foreign owned.

Husted has said that while he supports disclosure and accepts voluntary disclosure of that
political spending, he has never enforced the rule because the law gives him no authority to do
so.

“Officeholders have an obligation to follow the rules that exist,” said Rep. Debbie Phillips,
D-Albany.

Outgoing Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner crafted the rule in December 2010 in
response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that essentially allowed for unlimited
corporate and union political spending to indirectly assist candidates.

The rule later was approved by the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, which decides if a
rule exceeds the scope of an agency’s authority or conflicts with other rules or legislative
intent.

“Clearly, we think the idea of where campaign money is coming from, how state contracts are
being spent, how incentives are being spent, there needs to be accountability and transparency,”
said Rep. John Patrick Carney, D-Columbus, who is running for state auditor. “We need to look at
whether you really should be able to make contributions in the same year you’re getting
contracts."

Republicans argued that the rule was vague and could prevent a wide range of corporations from
giving, so eliminating it levels the playing field.

“The secretary can’t enforce an arbitrary rule that doesn’t have any law behind it,” said Matt
McClellan, spokesman for Husted. “The issue this rule deals with — independent expenditures by
corporations, nonprofits and labor groups to indirectly aid candidates — there is nothing in the
law that addresses those issues.”

Democrats said they soon will introduce a bill that mirrors the disclosure rule so it can be
written into law. If it passes, McClellan said, Husted would enforce it.

McClellan noted that as a senator, Husted sponsored a bill that passed the Senate unanimously in
2010 requiring corporate and union disclosure. It died in the Democratic-controlled House.

Husted could have moved to rescind the rule himself through an Agency Rule Review process.
McClellan said it was “not a priority for us.”

The Senate will take up the budget bill in May.

“The fact that we’ve gotten to a time in American history where the amount of money you have
determines whether you have the freedom to speak and have political speech is disturbing to a lot
of citizens here in Ohio,” Carney said.